Main conclusion: During fruit development, cell wall deposition rate decreases and cell wall swelling increases. The cell wall swelling pressure is very low relative to the fruit’s highly negative osmotic potential. Abstract: Rain cracking of sweet cherry fruit is preceded by the swelling of the cell walls. Cell wall swelling decreases both the cell: cell adhesion and the cell wall fracture force. Rain cracking susceptibility increases during fruit development. The objectives were to relate developmental changes in cell wall swelling to compositional changes taking place in the cell wall. During fruit development, total mass of cell wall, of pectins and of hemicelluloses increases, but total mass of cellulose remains constant. The mass of these cell wall fractions increases at a lower rate than the fruit fresh mass—particularly during stage II and early stage III. During stage III, on a whole-fruit basis, the HCl-soluble pectin fraction, followed by the water-soluble pectin fraction, the NaOH-soluble pectin fraction and the oxalate-soluble pectin fraction all increase. At maturity, just the HCl-soluble pectin decreases. Cell wall swelling increases during stages I and II of fruit development, with little change thereafter. This was indexed by light microscopy of skin sections following turgor release, and by determinations of the swelling capacity, water holding capacity and water retention capacity. The increase in cell wall swelling during development was due primarily to increases in NaOH-soluble pectins. The in vitro swelling of cell wall extracts depends on the applied pressure. The swelling pressure of the alcohol-insoluble residue is low throughout development and surprisingly similar across different cell wall fractions. Thus, swelling pressure does not contribute significantly to fruit water potential. © 2020, The Author(s).